My Laptop Hates Me

[CrazyAce86]

Its motherboard fried again. Yup, the one they just fixed the beginning of March. The customer service folks also tried to convince my mother that the ONE YEAR WARRANTY she bought was only good for eleven months. She also received a lecture from the supervisor there for treating the computer badly, when it was their motherboard that fried because it sucked.

Thank you, HP.

Anyhow, I'm hoping to save enough cash soon to buy a new laptop. I don't have room for a desktop right now nor the real desire for one, so I'm going with laptop. I don't know all that much about computers as I've said before, so if someone can help me with this, I'd appreciate it.

I want a laptop that...


Is under $1000. Preferably as cheap as possible.
Is not an HP or Dell
Has good graphics (I'll be using graphics programs)
Has good customer service, preferably sent out to people that are understandable. I don't mind accents, but when you can't understand a word they're saying, it doesn't really help.
Will last. I'm not saying it'll have to take a beating, but I don't want something that's going break at the slightest touch.
Has a CD burner. I'm guessing that's standard any more, but still wanted to mention it.
I won't be using it for gaming or anything like that. The most I'll use it for is to make the occasional video in Movie Maker and, like I said, I'll be using Paint Shop Pro and possibly Photoshop.

Can anyone help? Those 'build your own computer' places are nice, but I have no clue what 90% of the stuff is, let alone choose between them.

[雨]

it was their motherboard that fried because it sucked.Motherboards don't just spontaneously fry. That's retarded.:watson:

[CrazyAce86]

Well, they put in a brand new one and it lasted a month. Something ain't right with that. Computer was working just fine, then everything goes. Surprise, the brand new motherboard is fried.

Overall, this is the third time I've had major problems with my laptop in the past year. I don't run a gazillion programs at once, I scan for viruses regularly, I don't download things randomly, I do the updates when the come along... I'm just sick of having it breakdown on me. I'm going to use it until I get enough money saved up and then I'll give it to my mother. She can rip it apart or give it to the heathens (my cousins) for all I care.

[Fumi]

If you want good graphics you can get a Thinkpad R60 with standalone Radeon video chipset + 64MB video RAM, 1GB RAM, 80 GB HDD, Core Duo 1.66 CPU, DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive and XP Pro for $1100.

For under $1000 you'll be stuck with onboard graphics.

[Lan]

Did you get a chance to look at the motherboard, Lacey? I had a motherboard fry and almost take out my CPU because I had faulty capacitors...there was a big thing over that....they were from Taiwan and it's an old story now...but you can still google it up =d I'd do it, but I'm going to bed....and gonna disappear til the 18th cause of finals....good luck with that...you didn't tell us if you were able to claim on your warranty btw =d

[japanat]

If you want to use MovieMaker, I would recommend getting a DVD burner for the greater capacity. As mentioned, check capacitors. This may sound stupid, but do you have a decent splurge protector? Some areas' power supplies are really problematic.

What about a Sotec? They are very cheap, medium-quality PCs and notebooks. Or e-machine, which is basically a generic Gateway. If finance is the primary consideration, think about getting a refurbished one, ie IBM or other. It's gotta last longer than the one you have now:karate:

[CrazyAce86]

My dad actually just mentioned that. He said there's a place in Chambersburg that's supposed to be selling those, but he thinks its only desktops, not laptops. Worth checking out at any rate.

I have a surge protector; my other electronics-- tape deck, DSL, printer, external hard drive-- are also plugged into it and they're all fine, so I don't think it was that. My protector is getting old, though, so I plan on getting a new one as soon as possible.

HP said they did a full work-up on it. They even cleaned it and replaced the keyboard; I'd assume they'd check the capacitors, wouldn't they?

I know, I'm probably expecting too much from them. They can't even count, it seems. But they're playing nice now; we received a call from India and a lady left a message that we should have received the box to send it back in, she was sorry about the supervisor's lecture, that my mother was right about the warranty, etc. I've noticed that every time we call and get a guy, he's a jerk. If we get a woman, she's nice and listens. I don't mean to be sexist or whatever, I've just noticed that. I wonder, too.

[Lan]

They may not know to look at that xD Cause it's not so common that there was a big story, but big enough that the interwebs caught on...

I'm glad they're playing nice =O Are tehy offering cash back or a replacement for free?

[akitaka]

newegg.com

^go there, browse notebooks, and set your pricing. Check the stats that you enjoy; there are many notebooks at varying sizes for you to pick out. And another note; Newegg's return-policy is awesome. And if anything, if you're going PC, buy ASUS. The notebooks come with a 2-year parts and labor warranty (not accidental damage), and from what I've read in the tech forums, the company delivers damn well. Ironically, it's a Taiwanese company.

And what sort of graphics are you talking about? Unless you're all about 3dstudio or cinema4d model rendering, don't sweat the extra cash for it. Movies rely more on memory and cpu speed, anyways. But as stated, the radeon xpress stuff is both cheap and viable.

Anyhow, another word of advice: make sure the fans are spinning, keep an eye on your laptop temperatures with an application like RMclock or Notebook Hardware Control (all free downloads), and report to the company ASAP about your issues. Better save, than sorry, and they cannot deny fault when your notebook reads 80+ degrees C without gaming.

[Plekto]

Better yet, just jump ship and get a Mac - which doesn't require a fan to run.

Of course, get the old one fixed or replaced and sell it to help raise some cash.

[stsparky]

Better yet, just jump ship and get a Mac - which doesn't require a fan to run. Of course, get the old one fixed or replaced and sell it to help raise some cash.
I'll endorse that. There's this promo-
http://blog.scifi.com/tech/pics/macbook_white.jpg
$999 COMPARE TO $1199
normal academic price

Model #MA700LL/A
• 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 1GB RAM DDR2
• 80GB HD
• 6x SuperDrive
• Built-in iSight
• Airport/Bluetooth

Best of luck - don't forget to check for the $100 Printer rebate as well either.

[akitaka]

I was going to suggest mac, but she said "under 1000". I'm including tax in the bit, so the mac might be a bit out of her price range. However, that promo looks really, really tasty...

[Plekto]

Educational deals can easily bring the smaller macs down under $1000, plus once the Dell is fixed(warranty I think you said) - it will be worth a few hundred dollars used.

[CrazyAce86]

Well, the laptop's back and in working order it seems. I'm worried that my fan isn't working, though. I know it's not supposed to run continuously, but it only kicks on now and then when it gets really hot. It hasn't yet, since I've only been using my laptop for little over an hour, but still, shouldn't it have?

I'm also still looking for a new one. That place in Chambersburg apparently doesn't have a website. >_< Continued suggestions are welcomed!

[Jetsetlemming]

Better yet, just jump ship and get a Mac - which doesn't require a fan to run.

Good lord, you're an idiot. How do you even manage to work a keyboard? Thinking an OS has anything at all to do with cooling.
It's just as easy to get a PC built to low specifications and low tempurature as a Mac. Until I put a video card in my desktop it didn't have or need any kind of cooling at all except the CPU's setup. My old PC in my bedroom has no fans, and it works just fine as well.

[Plekto]

blah blah blah insult insult yell yell yell.

You fail to realize that currently Mac OS and Mac Hardware are one and the same. An integrated package that you can't run on a PC box. So it's NOT the OS that I'm suggesting, but an entire package. Macbooks tend to run cool and don't end up dying because a $3 fan stopped running.

Oh - and she needs a LAPTOP. Any fool can cool a PC adequately.

[CrazyAce86]

As wonderful as this argument is, it's not doing me any bit of good.

But, alas, I digress.